Armitage

Chapter 5 - Family Ties

‘Here, let me get you a pillow and a blanket.’ While Madeline laid out some bedclothes for her brother a black Mercedes sat idling a short way off from her dorm building. Andreas took his phone from his jacket pocket and pressed the Redial number.

‘Report,’ said the voice at the other end of the line.

‘She’s not alone,’ said Andreas. ‘She has her brother with her.’

‘Her brother?’ said the voice of Mason, sounding somewhat surprised. ‘This complicates matters.’ After a moment’s silence he spoke again. ‘It is of little consequence, he shall be dealt with accordingly if and when necessary.’

‘Yes sir,’ said Andreas.

‘Do you have my supper?’

‘Yes sir.’

‘Very good, I’ll be waiting.’

*          *          *

When Madeline awoke the next morning she found that Chris was nowhere to be seen. The pillow and blanket he had used were folded neatly on her chair but that was the only sign that her brother had ever been there. She looked at her alarm clock and swore when she saw it was a quarter to nine. She realised she must have forgotten to set her alarm last night, fortunately she didn’t have any classes today, but she still didn’t know where Chris was. She got out of bed and quickly checked the bathroom to see if he was taking a shower or something, but he wasn’t. As she stood there, frowning slightly, her phone started to ring from somewhere in the room. She searched frantically until she remembered it was in her bag, and pulling it out she saw that it was Abby calling.

‘Hi Abby.’

‘Hi Maddie, are you okay?’

‘Yeah I’m fine.’

‘You said you were going to call me as soon as you got home.’

‘I’m sorry, Chris crashed here last night and I forgot to set my alarm.’

‘Chris is there?’

‘Well he was,’ said Madeline, looking around her room. ‘I let him stay so he wouldn’t have to sleep in his car but I’ve just woken up and he’s gone.’

‘Where to?’

‘I don’t know…hang on.’ Madeline’s gaze fell upon a piece of paper that was taped to the back of her door. It read:

Maddie,

 

I woke up early and couldn’t sleep

so I’ve gone to get coffee. I didn’t

want to wake you but I’ll be back

in a while.

                       

Chris

‘It’s okay,’ said Madeline. ‘He’s gone out to fetch coffee.’

‘Are you okay though?’ asked Abby.

‘Yeah I’m fine, just annoyed at myself for not setting an alarm.’

‘You need to rest up. Do you have any classes today?’       

‘No, luckily.’

‘Good, otherwise I’d have told you not to go.’

‘Abby I’m fine,’ said Madeline. ‘I’ll talk to you later.’